Monthly Archives: December 2006

Mason Neck State Park Photos

Photos of Mason Neck State Park, Virginia National park photos: Grand Canyon, Great Falls, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton…

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Starbucks: Respect for Workers and Health Care

Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz interview on Marketplace [the broken link was removed] I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I guess it’s been well documented, many times, in federally subsidized housing known as the projects. My dad never made … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care, Management, Respect, webcast | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Workplace Management [the broken link was removed] by Taiichi Ohno, translated by Jon Miller. This classic work by the founding father of the Toyota Production System returns to print in a new translation. Ohno delivers timeless lessons on how to … Continue reading

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How to Improve

My management philosophy is guided by the idea of seeking methods that will be most effective.* There are many ways to improve. Good management systems are about seeking systemic adoption of the most effective solutions. What this amounts to is … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

10 Stocks for 10 Years Update

In April of 2005 I wrote: 10 stocks for 10 years. At that time I also created a fund through Marketocracy. Thus far the portfolio is up 15.8% annually (versus 15.3% for the S&P 500) – see more below… I … Continue reading

Posted in Investing | 1 Comment

Weblog Awards: Best Business Blog Finalist

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog is a 2006 Weblog Awards finalist in the Best Business Blog category. 10 blogs from each category are selected as finalists. Voting opened last week and continues through December 15th. For those visiting from … Continue reading

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Management Improvement Carnival #1

There have been a number of great post recently about management improvement: Amazon’s Long Public Haul by Kevin Meyer – “Amazon has now been around a while and has a loyal following. Their culture is apparently deep, at least for … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival, Customer focus, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management | 5 Comments

Ritz Carlton and Home Depot

Don MacAskill writes of his great service from Ritz-Carlton and horrible service from Home Depot. Neither result is surprising, see related posts below… Ritz-Carlton’s motto is “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” And they actually turn those words into reality… Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Womack on Lean in China

From the Lean blog another valuable podcast: Lean in China with Jim Womack. He is not impressed with the state of lean in China yet. Lean Enterprise China [the broken link was removed] has been established to aid the adoption … Continue reading

Posted in China, Economics, Lean thinking, webcast | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Toyota Production System for Sales…

Corporate profile: the Toyota Production System [the broken link was removed] by Sarah Perrin: Within Toyota itself, non-production personnel support the TPS approach. “We very much value the Toyota way,” says David Betteley, managing director of Toyota Financial Services (UK) … Continue reading

Posted in Lean thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 1 Comment